Lolo Jones Has Cameo in "Left Behind" Movie

Maybe in the outtakes, she'll be seen sprinting after a passenger who boarded with the wrong seating group: Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones has a small role as an airport gate attendant in "Left Behind," the movie version of the bestselling book series.

Jones filmed her role on Monday. Paul Lalonde, the movie's writer and producer, told NBC he decided to offer Jones a small role after learning that Jones is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the movie is being filmed.

Jones posted on her Twitter feed that her role is a speaking part ("I have ten words. Really 8. I counted Mr. Williams as 2 words to increase Oscar chances," she wrote) and that she sat next to the film's star, Nicolas Cage, during make-up.

"Left Behind" is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2014.

Jones finished fifth in the 100-meter high hurdles at the U.S. championships in June. She has been training with the U.S. bobsled team in the hopes of being named to the U.S. team for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Jones isn't the first elite runner to appear in a Hollywood film. Distance pros like Pat Porter and Ashley Johnson played other elites in the 1998 Steve Prefontaine biopic "Without Limits." (The late Porter played four-time Olympic champ Lasse Viren.) Two-time Olympic marathoner Kenny Moore had a small role in the 1982 movie "Personal Best," in which Mariel Hemingway played a heptathlete. But we're unaware of still-active elites who have appeared in non-sports movies. If you're more up on your Hollywood trivia than we are (which wouldn't be hard), please enlighten in the comments section below.

Scott DouglasScott is a veteran running, fitness, and health journalist who has held senior editorial positions at Runner’s World and Running Times.

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